STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir government has initiated various steps for strengthening the support to education of tribal students. In line with the announcement made by Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha for effective steps aimed at welfare of tribal population in J&K, the Tribal Affairs Department has disbursed highest ever scholarship amounting to Rs. 31.12 Crore to tribal students during the current financial year.
The Tribal Affairs Department has also earmarked a budget of 45 Cr for scholarship in the financial year 2022-23. The rise in scholarship budget is aimed at catering the proposed enhancement in scholarship amount for students of Class 1 to 8 in order to encourage primary education in rural areas.
Secretary, Tribal Affairs, Dr. Shahid Iqbal Choudhary informed that education of tribal students is a top priority of J&K Government and with keen interest of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha the department has disbursed highest ever scholarship amounting to Rs. 31 Crore to support the tribal students at Post-Graduate, Graduate, Post-Matric and Pre-Matric level. This also includes many cases of previous two years pending due to various reasons.
The scholarship amount has been credited directly to the bank account of the students through PFMS mode. It was informed that a total number of 12,580 students received scholarship amount to the tune of Rs. 15.40 Crore under Post Matric scholarship scheme while under Pre Matric scholarship scheme an amount of Rs. 13.50 Crore was disbursed to students studying in 1st to 8th class and an amount of Rs. 2.22 Crore was credited in the individual bank account of 7420 students of class 9th and 10th.
Post-Matric scholarship to the tune of Rs 15.40 disbursed to 12,580 students includes the students under professional courses clubbed under Group A viz MBBS, BDS, BUMS, Degree Engineering Courses, P.G. Courses in Medical & Engineering, BSc Agriculture, BVSc, BSc IT, M Phill, Ph. D Courses, Non-Professional (and all other Government Recognized Courses), UG & PG Level Courses, Computer Courses of 3 years, Group B viz Diploma Engineering Courses, All Medical Courses, B.Ed Courses & CHM “A” Level & “A” Level Courses (01 Years), Group C viz All other Courses leading to a graduate degree not covered under group I & II e.g., B.A/BSc/B.Com etc and Group D viz All Post-Matriculation Level Non-Degree Courses for which entrance qualification if High School (Class X), e.g., Senior Secondary Certificate (XI & XII), both General and Vocational Stream, ITI Courses, 3 year Diploma Courses in Polytechnic, (“O” Level Hardware/Software Diploma Computer Courses etc)
The number of students provided scholarship under the Graduate and Post-Matric scholarship registered an increase of 120% over the numbers last year in addition to clearance of backlog of precious two years. The Tribal Affairs Deptt is further working on reforming the process of scholarship by introducing PFMS at Pre-matric and doubling the scholarship amount for classes 1 to 8.
Pertinently, the deptt had announced doubling of scholarship budget to 30Cr in 2021-22 which was achieved in time and for next academic year another 50% hike to Rs 45 Cr has been included in the budget. The scholarship budget of Rs 6.37 Cr in 2018-19, 8.60 Cr in 2019-20 was enhanced to record Rs 30 Cr outlay for the financial year 2021-22.
The department is also working on special scholarship award for more than 32000 tribal students of Seasonal Educational Centres belonging to Transhumant semi-nomadic families to encourage their inclusion in quality education from this year as a flagship initiative.